Wesselmann's Great American Nude series depicts women sprawled in front of patriotic backdrops. Above, his 1961 mixed media work Great American Nude #21.

Mugrabi Collection/Estate of Tom Wesselmann/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

Sixties pop artist Tom Wesselmann liked women, and saluted them on his canvases — or, sometimes, just parts of them: perfect glossy red mouths with lips parted to reveal pink tongues; nipples, even on the oranges he paints. These are just a few of the images that might make you blush in a Wesselmann retrospective now on view at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond.

"I don't think you could ask for a more literal interpretation of the objectification of parts of the female body," says curator Sarah Eckhardt.

Before these large works focusing only on closely observed individual body parts, Wesselmann painted a series of full nudes, sprawling indiscreetly against patriotic backgrounds with red, white and blue stripes, and some stars.

The Great American Nude series was Wesselmann's best-known work. Painted in the 1960s, the large canvases featured the colors of Old Glory, sprawly nudes, and on the walls behind them, pasted clippings from magazines: a portrait of George Washington, a photograph of JFK, a reproduction of Van Gogh's Sunflowers, the Mona Lisa. What's going on here?

Curator Sylvia Yount says Wesselmann was paying tribute to an artistic tradition: "[He was] putting himself into that larger pantheon of artists who are dealing with the mainstay of art history: the female nude."

And he was jockeying himself, as an American artist, into that pantheon. Some of Wesselmann's paintings are funny: Great American Nude #26 (he doesn't do fancy titles), which he painted in 1962, is a very pink figure, lying on what looks like a blue bedspread. On a table behind her, Wesselmann has pasted pictures of various objects cut out of magazines: a man's brimmed hat, a Siamese cat, liquor bottles, a half-eaten chocolate cake, a six-pack of Coke ...

It's a contrast to Manet's scandalous 1863 painting Olympia (you can see it here), in which a nude prostitute reclines on white sheets, ignoring the black maid behind her holding an enormous bouquet of flowers. Wesselmann's 1962 nude gets cake — different times, different tastes.

Now, in 2013, Wesselmann's tastes seem insulting to feminist eyes — seeing women only as sex objects. But curator Sarah Eckhardt says in the pre-feminist '60s (those Playboy and pinup days) women were objectified that way. And if these paintings shock us today, that's part of a long artistic tradition.

"If there's something to resist in Wesselmann, it's something that could be resisted in almost any of the nudes in art history," Eckhardt says.

In fine art, the female body is a nude. In not-so-fine art, she's naked. In Richmond, the Virginia Museum of Fine Art's Wesselmann show has a bit of both.

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Back in the 1960s, famous artists like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein painted images from popular culture; soup cans, comic books, as high art. A retrospective at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond features a pop artist whose name is less well known.

And some of his work made NPR special correspondent Susan Stamberg blush.

SUSAN STAMBERG, BYLINE: Porno, filthy pictures? That'll get you to the website. Tom Wesselmann liked women and saluted them on his canvases. Or, just parts of them, sometimes.

SYLVIA YOUNT: The nipple.

STAMBERG: Even his navel oranges have nipples. And then there's the Wesselmann oral fixation.

ECKHARDT: I don't think you could ask for a more literal interpretation of the objectification of parts of the female body.

STAMBERG: Before these large works, focusing only on glossy individual body parts, Tom Wesselmann painted full nudes sprawling indiscreetly against some patriotic backgrounds.

ECKHARDT: American presidents, the stars, the stripes, the red white and blue.

STAMBERG: This was Wesselmann's best-known work, a 1960s series called "The Great American Nude." On each large canvas, the colors of Old Glory; the sprawly nudes and, on the walls behind them, pasted clippings from magazines: a portrait of George Washington, a photograph of JFK, a reproduction of Van Gogh's "Sunflowers," the "Mona Lisa."

YOUNT: And putting himself into that larger pantheon of artists who were dealing with the mainstay of art history - the female nude.

STAMBERG: And jockeying himself as an American artist into that pantheon.

Some of Wesselmann's paintings are funny. "Great American Nude Number 26" - he doesn't do fancy titles, doesn't really need to. "Number 26" from 1962 is a very pink nude, lying on a blue bedspread, maybe. And on a table behind her, he pastes color pictures of various objects he's cut out of magazines; man's hat with a brim.

YOUNT: The Don Draper moment, I think we have, from "Mad Men."

(LAUGHTER)

YOUNT: A Siamese cat, half-eaten chocolate cake, Beefeater Gordon, and then that six pack of Coke.

Now, in 2013, Wesselmanns seem insulting to feminist eyes, seeing women only as sex objects. But curator Sarah Eckhardt says in the pre-feminist '60s, those Playboy pin-ups days, women were objectified that way. And if these paintings shock us today, why, that's part of a long artistic tradition.

ECKHARDT: If there's something to resist in Wesselmann, its something that could be resisted in almost any of the nudes in art history that you would look at.

STAMBERG: In fine art, the female body is a nude. In not-so fine art, she's naked. In Richmond, the Virginia Museum of Fine Art's Wesselmann show, it closes July 28th has a bit of both.

MONTAGNE: I'm Susan Stamberg, NPR News.

See if you blush at some of Tom Wesselmann's work. It's at NPR.org. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.